On Monday evening, when the kids got home from school, we got to work on a mass baking sess! It was super nuts and VERY messy, but it was also important to us to show appreciation for those who live around us and thank them for welcoming us into our new life. We decided that we wanted to bake them some treats and drop them off with a card and say “Thank you” and that we think they’re great and despite the madness it was a lovely and fun evening together.

I am not the best baker, and these were not the best treats, in fact I felt a little awkward giving them to people as they didn’t go as great as I had originally hoped. But they were edible, looked pretty and were very graciously received. They made everyone’s night (including ours)!

Amongst them were ginger biscuits, and my favourite thing to bake “Peanut butter cookies!”. I have made them twice in this last week; once on Monday for the neighbours, and again at the weekend for my Nephews birthday! I love them because they are tasty, simple, quick to do, and look great! So if you think you might like to give them a go then here they are.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Why not give them a go for a tasty treat one evening with hot chocs. Or as a little treat for friends or neighbours! Its a great (and very simple) way to spread Christmas cheer!

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We were excited to recently receive a box of goodies from Hallmark, to celebrate the launch of their new Frozen range of itty bittys. Super soft and beautiful, these little plush toys are the latest to join the Disney Family of itty bittys at Hallmark and will make for great stocking fillers, baby gifts or just general gifts for little ones who love Frozen. Elsa, Anna, Olaf and Sven are all there and they are really cute.

Alice (our 16m old tot) found them great to lob across the room which I was a little surprised by! I loved how she could easily handle them, and in my mind had imagined that they would be great for her for Christmas, however whilst in this throwing stage I think we will hold off on that one! Megan on the other hand thoroughly enjoyed playing with them and found them adorable…she’s 5 and instantly recognised the characters in mini form and loved them, they are great to snuggle and great to play make believe role play games with. Small enough for little hands to grab and to fit into hand bags, and big enough to win children’s hearts!

Aside form the 4 cute little members of the Frozen crew, there was also a challenge to “Build a Snowman” with everything we needed to do so! It was such a fun experience and the kids were really excited about it. We made the snowmen last week, and despite my huge lack of baking skills, we all found it to be a rather fun, messy, and overall very creative frozen adventure that produced some tasty after school delights.

How to make Snowman Cupcakes

I am not the best when it comes to baking and such, but these were pretty straightforward and looked really cute. The kids thoroughly enjoyed it, and we decided they would be great for parties, or to give out to people over the festive season.

For the cupcakes you will need:

1 egg
45ml of water
10ml Vegetable oil
10g of soft margarine for the icing (we actually just made up our own butter cream icing so we had lots!)
1 Frozen cup cake kit

Pre-heat the over to 180c (Gas mark 4)

Place the cupcake cases in a bun tray

Empty the sponge mix into a mixing bowl and add the egg, water and oil. Using a whisk, mix to make a runny batter

Using a teaspoon divide the mixture evenly between the bun cases

Bake the cupcakes for 10 – 12 mins until firm to the touch and golden brown. Remove and allow to cool on a wire rack.

To assemble – use icing to stick the 2 marshmallows together (we just used one big one and drew a face). Pole 2 sticks into each side for arms. Press in the tic tac for the nose, and dot on eyes and mouth with the black icing pen. Then stick on (with icing) the tooth!

Admire your creation!

They were so much fun to do and simple once we got into it. Afterwards the kids decided to make a couple of extra Olaf’s for their hot chocolates – because some things are worth melting for!

*Frozen itty bittys are available through Hallmark. We were sent these things for the purpose of this post and thank Hallmark for that. All pictures and opinions are my own.

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Ever since we visited York’s Chocolate story a couple of months ago, and heard of “Wasabi KitKats” in Japan, we have been most intrigued to sample them and see the wonders of Japenese chocolate! So when Yutaka asked us this week to create some Easter Truffles using their Japenese ingredients, we were both excited and a little curious.

I would admit that I am a boarder-line chocoholic and will sample most flavours of choccies. I am also the only sushi fan in our household (at the moment), so these especially fascinated and appealed to me. The base of the truffle is rich and simple to make – the flavours are then added and left to chill. They look fantastic when finished off and the taste on the whole was lovely. With Easter on the horizon and chocolate on everyone’s minds, here’s how to make them, our verdict and some tips!

YUTAKA Easter Truffles

Before you begin, note that these are quite time consuming and very messy to make! The kids loved the process though, and they have been the perfect activity to do during the school holidays, as you keep coming back to them at each stage of the process. The kids have been helpful, very involved and loved sampling them at the end too.

Ingredients (Makes 30 – 36 truffles):

Place chocolate, butter and cream in a glass bowl over a pan of water and heat through slowly until smooth whilst whisking. Remove from heat and divide into 5 equal portions, adding the various flavourings to each individual portion as below. Place in the fridge to set – overnight if possible. (Mark each bowl so you know which flavours you are dealing with).

So for the flavourings, and whilst the chocolate was melting, we measured them out into 5 bowls. We had Yuzu, Wasabi Furikake, Sushi Ginger, Miso paste and Shaoxing Rice Wine.

Miso Caramel – think salted caramel with a twist

These take 1st place in our opinion – They were rich and tasty and the kids said “mmmmm soooooo yuuuummmyyy”!

Put sugar and water in a heavy bottomed saucepan, stir and leave on a medium heat, stirring occasionally, until caramel in colour. Carefully add double cream (it will hiss a little) and whisk whilst off the heat, add miso paste and whisk thoroughly until smooth. Add 2 tbs of miso caramel sauce to the remaining truffle mixture. The remainder of the sauce saved and used over ice cream for a delicious dessert.

Yuzu – a hint of citrus

Our second favourite. Again the balance of the rich truffle, this time with white chocolate was so tasty. The citrus hit was very subtle, and in fact could have probably handled a little more. They were lovely.

The kids didn’t like these, but I did. They were gorgeous, but then again the mix of dark chocolate and ginger is always a good combo. They were a powerful taste in the mouth but really nice.

2 tbs chopped Yutaka sushi gingerCocoa for coating

Wasabi Furikake – milder than chilli with the added crunch of sesame

Sad to say these were a no go for us. They looked great but weren’t that nice at all…I dont know if we used too much of the Wasabi Furitake, but the flavour was too over powering and we each spat it out (sorry Yutaka).

2 tbs Yutaka Wasabi FurikakeDrinking chocolate for coating

Shaoxing Rice Wine – a warm, boozy hit

In theory these looked like everything you would expect when you think truffles, but as an Lds family, and T-total, I am afraid we never sampled them so can’t say for sure if they were delish or not – perhaps if this sounds like your thing, you could start here with them? The Shaoxing Rice Wine carries a powerful alcohol scent to it!!

2 tbs Shaoxing rice wine warmedVermicelli for coating

In conclusion I think that these were a great idea and “experiment” to carry out with the kids. It’s a fab sensory experience, smelling each of the ingredients and then discussing how it might taste upon completion. The process of rolling the truffles was super messy, and making 5 together became very time consuming, made for lots of washing up, and at times was a little confusing. But all in all the finished product looked great and tasted good too (mostly).

I would deffs make the Yuzu, Sushi ginger and Miso ones again, and even wrap them as gifts for people. Perfect for Easter? I’d say so, yes.

*Yutaka gifted us the ingredients for the purpose of this post

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It’s been absolutely ages since I had a good baking sess with Megs. I am not that great at it though occasionally I do surprise myself, and so baking with her is a great shield if its not perfect, and we always have fun in the process too which is wonderful. It is something we tried to do weekly when she was at home with me, purely because she loves it so much and it is an opportunity to talk and be creative as well as having some half decent tasty treats in the house. And so whilst she was off school this week and when she was feeling better and getting bored of Netflix, I ensured her hands were washed well (twice) and we got our bake on!

Iv’e said it before but Autumn/Winter makes me feel a need for more spice and warmth in my life, with the likes of cinnamon and ginger making an appearance for flavours and fragrances around the home. And so as the suggestion to bake slipped out of my mouth I automatically found myself fancying giving ginger biscuits a go (hoping they would be a success), and after a quick look on Pinterest I found a recipe that was both easy and thankfully only required the ingredients I had in saving the stress of searching for something else (Phew)!

I am a bit weird when it comes to baking or things that require measuring out for cooking as I don’t have any scales in my kitchen (true story). When I cook I make it up as I go along unless I can use cups or a jug and so with baking, I always look for a recipe done in “Cups”…this way I can scoop it out and bung it in the bowl. I honestly will disregard a recipe if it is in anything but cups!! As I write this I think maybe kitchen scales would be a good gift this Christmas? Who knows what delights i’ll create then. Anyway I digress, here is the recipe I went with that was so easy and successful, and its in cups…

Megs and I had a lovely time laughing, giggling, chatting, measuring and mixing. It was lovely though she hadn’t been well to be able relive those life at home days again and have her mostly as herself as oppose to shattered from school every evening and rushing to do dinner. Oh, and the biscuits weren’t all bad either…VERY tasty and very impressed with the results…nothing like making the best of a bad situation with some chewy gingery treats to show for it!

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HELLO THERE, I’m Mary – Wifey, Mama and creator of this family & Lifestyle blog. I am a thrifty living, adventure seeking, semi-cool Yorkshire lass, that loves pizza, chocolate and ice cream far too much!
I believe there are Hearty moments in all seasons of life and I seek to capture them as we endeavor to live our dreams, and create a full and hearty life together!